It was a sunny day in Oakland at the Alameda County Community Food Bank, where East Bay EDA hosted its Food Bank Volunteer Day on July 10. What started as an invitation to join PG&E at the beginning of the year to give back grew into an official summer volunteer event engaging our community partners, members, and sponsors.
Our volunteer partners, comprising nearly 50 individuals, included representatives from Alaska Airlines, Oakland Roots and Soul SC, Kaiser Permanente, PG&E, Alameda County Workforce Development Board, and Earn and Learn. In total, our volunteer effort will provide over 20,000 meals for Alameda County residents who need it most. Those numbers equate to each volunteer providing 271 meals for our region in just a few hours.
For East Bay EDA Executive Committee Member, Sarah Chavez-Yoell, Local Government Affairs Manager for PG&E, “Volunteering at the food bank was deeply personal for me. As a kid, I remember the times our family had to rely on the food bank to get by. Coming full circle and being able to give back now is a reminder of how far I’ve come—and how important it is to show up for others the way people once showed up for us.”
Since 1985, the Food Bank has been at the forefront of hunger relief efforts in the Bay Area. Today, their expansive network includes more than 400 food pantries, hot-meal programs, senior centers, and other non-profits to distribute millions of pounds of food every year. Alameda County Community Food Bank was also recognized alongside the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano as recipients of the 2025 Legacy Award for the East Bay Innovation Awards.
In Alameda County, 1 in 4 residents experience or are at risk of hunger. When you include the entire East Bay, those numbers amplify to approximately half a million food-insecure individuals. With proposed federal cuts of $300 billion to SNAP in California, our community safety net is now at even more risk.
By giving time and money, including employee matching hours, we can help protect the health and well-being of our communities. Visit the Alameda County Community Food Bank to learn how you can host a volunteer day, advocate, and lend your time or money towards keeping our community safety net strong and resilient.
